Sermon on Isaiah 45:1-8, for Lent 4 Midweek, "Breaking Down the Gates"
Part 4 of series "Singing with the Exiles" by Rev. Reed Lessing “This is what the Lord says to His messiah, to Cyrus …I will break down the gates of bronze.” Isaiah 45:1-2. On the afternoon of August 5, 2010 the 121-year-old San José copper-gold mine in Chile, South America, caved in. Thirty-three men were trapped underneath 2,300 feet of solid rock. Seventeen days after the accident, a note written in bold red letters appeared taped to a drill bit when it was pulled to the surface after penetrating an area believed to be accessible to the trapped workers. It read simply, “ Estamos bien en el refugio, los treinta y tres. ” In English: “ We are fine in the shelter, the 33 of us. ” But they were in survival mode. They ate two spoonful’s of tuna, a sip of milk, and a morsel of peaches—every other day. They heard the voice that said, “You are locked in with no way out.” The Chilean miners knew; O God, they knew. But once the people at the top found out that the men we...